Last Christmas, I asked for a Food Saver to vacuum-seal my garden produce. Sticking it in the pantry, I figured I’d pull it out one day. The snow encrusted landscape made it improbable I’d see green anytime soon. Green indeed came, and with it a garden that flourished. Well, not the broccoli (deer snipped the florets before they had a chance) and the peas were a little slack and the green beans were nothing to write home about. So what grew?

When we got married, I knew Jon wanted to retire in the Northwoods. I passed it off as an elusive dream because I thought we would never be able to afford it. That was OK because I had absolutely no desire to ever move Up North. Cue John Lennon: Life is what happens while you’re making other plans. Long story, but in 1993, we became the proud owners of 87 acres and an old cabin on the Townsend Flowage.

UW-La Crosse The following local students completed degree requirements at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in August. Bonduel: Cole Letter, bachelor of science, exercise and sport science major: exercise science — fitness track, highest honors. University of Maryland Global Campus Theodore Johnson, of Hatley, was named to the dean’s list for the summer 2024 term at University of Maryland Global Campus in Adelphi, Maryland.

Being around animals my whole life, and especially dairy animals, I’ve come to discover they definitely communicate over and above our human awareness. For example, a mama cow has a definitive moo when she calls for her calf, a different moo when she perceives harm toward her little one, another moo is a feed-me-now-or-I’ll-die-right-here. Unfamiliar territory fuels yet a different kind of stressful moo.

Fall is a great time to enjoy watching those magnificent sandhill cranes. This is the time when they flock together in large numbers. One of the places you can easily see them is at the Oconto Marsh, one of their staging areas; they stop here and similar places around Wisconsin to rest and replenish energy reserves before starting or continuing their migration south. You can find the Oconto Marsh one mile northeast of Oconto.